


Woke up starin' at this empty room

by Analinea



Series: Be still, my whumper's heart [1]
Category: Charlie's Angels (2019)
Genre: Collars, Elena and Jane appearance, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapped, OC villain - Freeform, Whump, Whumptober 2020, and in the hands of the enemy, day 1 and day 2 together, shackled, tagged gen but I ship them, the comfort is implied, themes were let's hang out sometime, there's just no active romance in this so it can be seen as either
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:16:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26747230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Analinea/pseuds/Analinea
Summary: “You’re a hard gal to get a hold of, you know,” a sickly sweet voice murmurs next to Sabina’s ear. She jerks her head away before she’s even aware of her own body. Call it survival instinct, call it conditioning; something in her that is barely awake ignites to scream danger.But everything else is so fuzzy.
Relationships: Elena Houghlin & Jane Kano & Sabina Wilson
Series: Be still, my whumper's heart [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947337
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Woke up starin' at this empty room

**Author's Note:**

> First participation for whumptober, and I'm going to combine prompts a lot because I don't have a lot of time...  
> First work for Charlie's Angels too but I love the girls so there's going to be a lot of that coming this october!  
> Title from a OneRepublic song.
> 
> Enjoy!

“You’re a hard gal to get a hold of, you know,” a sickly sweet voice murmurs next to Sabina’s ear. She jerks her head away before she’s even aware of her own body. Call it survival instinct, call it conditioning; something in her that is barely awake ignites to scream danger.

But everything else is so fuzzy. 

Sabina’s thoughts struggle up the hill of consciousness, and then comes the hand. Cold, bony, running down her cheek– she tries getting away again except this time her limited move is accompanied by the rustling of light metal, and she swings back minutely.

Her brain jump starts enough for her to open blurry eyes on a dark room; distantly, she notes how her tongue is stuck to her soft palate, how the few colors around swirl, how labored her breathing is.

If she can’t get enough air, she’ll never fully wake up.

As for the rest, she might have been drugged; she hates the thought.

Her eyes flutter close even as her common sense begs her to keep them open to better assess the threat. At least, the familiarity of the restrained breathing helps her understand that she’s shackled up– anything else is just...void. 

She can’t feel her arms. She ought to be worried but, actually, she’s just grateful the pain hasn’t invited itself yet. She could even maybe just...fall back asleep–

“Everytime you chase me, I just…,” the person starts again, chuckles, “well, I don’t want any plus ones on our get togethers.” 

Sabina can almost place that voice. She frowns, coughing a little when she tries to swallow but her throat is too dry. Slivers of the world let her see someone standing right in front of her but out of arms reach; if she could only focus just a bit.

“And everytime I try to meet with you, you just won’t come to me...How rude,” mock hurt tinged with a touch of insanity– fuck. Volbarn. Paul motherfucking Volbarn.

Adrenaline cuts through the fog enough for Sabina to finally open her eyes on a face she’s only seen in video footage of the guy they’d been chasing for months now– when he’s not the one going after them.

Hands in his pockets, he gets in Sabina’s space; when she jerks backwards one of his hands shoots off to grab something around her neck that stops her moving with biting suddenness. Flash memory: Elena at the end of their first mission together. 

God. Where is she? Where is Jane? Sabina pants as she twists her head away as much as she can while Volbarn gets closer to whisper in her ear, “I just want some quality time together.” 

She feels like crying because her mind has turned into a maze that won’t let her access any of the memories that could tell her how she got into this mess, and what happened to her team. She just can’t give her enemy this satisfaction. 

So she grins, chokes out the best chuckle her tight chest allows her to, and rasps out, “Honey, you’re just not worth my time.”

She gets a nasty backhand for that, pushing her out of her own body for a moment that stretches until she grounds herself and forces her lungs to remember how to work. There’s nothing more uncomfortable than breathing through a bleeding nose.

Well. Ignoring the rest of the established general situation anyway.

Pain trickles in. From her nose to biting the inside of her cheek, to the deep ache in her chest from hanging by the arms for too long. Maybe whatever drugs are wearing off.

When she’s gathered herself enough, she raises her head to find Volbarn pacing with a spring in his steps. The room is a damp, moldy cliché of a basement, rusting pipes included. 

“That’s what I like about you,” he huffs out a laugh as he glances at her. He stops to look at her properly again. “You’re feisty. I want to savor that, before I get the pleasure of educating it out of you.”

Sabina represses the shudder that goes through her at the memory of Volbarn’s file, but the rattle of the chains above her give away the faint tremor that takes her whole body. She glowers at him to hide the setting panic, counts her breaths to avoid passing out.

_ Get yourself together, Sabina _ , she tells herself, conjuring up Jane’s no nonsense tone to go with it. It’s more effective than Eye of the Tiger; she hangs her head to shake her thoughts back in place, groans as she puts her feet underneath her one painful drag at a time. 

Her hands are useless in helping her pull herself up, but as she shakily stands up her shoulders twinge; she’s not looking forward to getting feeling back in her arms. 

The pressure alleviates in her chest, though, her throbbing ribs not keeping her from filling up her lungs– she stumbles when the oxygen makes the room tilt and turn, but stays up.

The condescendingly proud look in Volbarn’s eyes makes Sabina want to gouge them out.  _ Look at you go _ , he seems to say with his smirk,  _ you’re so. Strong! _

She spits the blood that’s been pooling out in her mouth at his feet, because she can; his lack of reaction is disappointing. “Where–” she croaks out, swallows. She can’t give him the emotional leverage of admitting she has no idea what happened to her team, even though he must know. “Where are we? I’d say your mom would have a better basement but she did give birth to  _ you _ , so…”

_ No bad, sweetheart _ , she hears in Boz’s voice. She twitches, not liking that this is less of a thought and more of an auditory hallucination.

Volbarn comes closer, eyes narrowed; Sabina forbids her body to react, even when his hand reaches up to grab her collar again, pulling on the ring connected to it until they’re nose to nose. She closes her eyes.

“That’s just bad BDSM etiquette,” Sabina says, voice straining from the effort to pull away, “maybe I should give you a list of the good books.”

“There,” Volbarn sighs, his breath on her cheek, “that’s the point where I have enough.”

The punch to the guts takes her by surprise; his grip on the collar is unrelenting, the metal biting painfully into her skin when her body is pushed back before her knees give up on her. Being held up by the neck is an uncomfortable feeling made worse by the lost breath she’s trying to find again. 

_ Sabina? _

She hates that blinking herself back into the world comes with tears streaming down the sides of her face without her control. She gasps once through her mostly closed up throat but doesn’t get much more than that; Volbarn drops her and the jolt punches the air out of her all over again.

She’s not a fan of this game outside the bedroom.

She won’t be able to stand up a second time. She’s too useless to get herself out of this situation.

_ Cut yourself some slack, will you _ _? _ the memory of Elena’s reprimand echoes inside of her head. Sabina can’t help the choked sob that comes out of her. 

_ Sabina _ ? She frowns; the voice…

“Wha–?” she mouths weakly, raising her heavy head up. Elena’s voice didn’t come from her mind, but where–? Is it the oxygen rollercoaster that confuses her?

“So,” Volbarn interrupts her internal freak out, getting in her space again though he keeps his hands in his pockets this time.

_ Sabina, can you hear me? _

She turns her head, shaking it to stop the room from twisting away from her eyes. Volbarn sighs, grabs her chin to force her to look at him. “We’re going to lay down some rules if we want this thing between us to work out.”

“We?” she incredulously asks, just before it comes again,  _ “Sabina, answer me!” _

Oh. She smiles, a feral thing, sniffs. “I can hear you,” she answers. Volbarn frowns, mouth downturned;  _ “Close your eyes!” _ and she does just as Volbarn raises his arm to hit her again, anger on his face. 

Something explodes before he can bring it down; something hits Sabina before thumping to the ground. Probably Volbarn himself. 

She opens her eyes and looks up in time to see two silhouettes emerge from the cloud of kicked up dust, guns drawn, fierce, beautiful. Her angels.

She’ll blame the exhaustion, the pain, the lack of air, even the relief and the nerves breaking down; Sabina starts laughing. 

Jane goes to secure Volbarn as Elena comes to her, worry in both their eyes, and Sabina laughs.

Elena says something that doesn’t reach Sabina’s ears; she laughs.

So hard she cries. So hard, actually, that she passes out. 

But it’s okay, she can. 

She’s safe.

**Author's Note:**

> There's going to be a lot of open endings due to number of fics and time limitations but! As a rule I always give them happy endings in my head so they're always safe and loved :3 if you don't want that, death of the author is your best friend I guess!
> 
> **Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!**
> 
> I'm on [the blr](https://kinsbournescream.tumblr.com/tagged/ana-writes-sometimes)


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